John Luther Adams - "Become Ocean"

John Luther Adams was born in Mississippi, but later on moved to Alaska, where he spent thirty-six years trying to find himself as a composer. Alaska is the place that inspired Adams the most when it comes to music, the lifestyle he had there allowed him time for creativity and the opportunity to find the connection between nature and music.

Upon listening to “Become Ocean”, surprisingly I felt the harmony, peacefulness, but also the sense of distress at the same time that only an ocean can provide. It was not easy to present such an art, yet have the feeling you are on the shore, listening to the ocean and all its beauty. Adams made an attempt to do it by performing his composition with an orchestra being divided into three parts that cannot be noticed while listening to the piece. Like the sea, it presents a dazzling surface, with its motion and waves conveying amazing force. The waves in the composition play an essential role in my opinion because they provide the sort of sounds the sea makes, some of the waves expand into big smashes evoking fear, yet some are silent and calm bringing forth nothing else, but harmony. 

It is astonishing the way Adams has a certain relationship with nature, perhaps his living in Alaska gave him an opportunity to make that link. He was able to witness all the beauties and unsettling of the ocean as well as the climate change putting everything into his music. Perhaps, he is trying to send a message to the world, perhaps someone would hear it and be aware of it. That message could be highly heard through the intensity of the sounds the instruments make, the slow intensity going on and on, suddenly high intensity sounds like the level of the sea is rising, thus at the end, mere silence is all that could be heard in the hidden depth of the ocean.

John Luther Adams’ “Become Ocean” won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 2014, making his lifelong engagement in music as well as nature recognized among the audience and also the moment that he chose the right career path in his life. In my opinion, not only did he make extraordinary pieces of art, but at the same time, he tried to change people’s awareness toward life itself and surpass his own experience in order to understand the important values of everything surrounding us.